Joan Didion on Slouching Towards the Presidency

"I so disliked how she wore that baby like a broach," Darryl Pinckney said last night about former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her son, Trig. Pinckney may have provided the comic highlight of the post-election conversation at the New York Public Library, but there were two main points from the evening that were agreed upon: Afghanistan and the economy are the most important concerns and Senator John McCain was simply unfit for the presidency.

The New York Review of Bookscelebrated its 45th anniversary with a panel of some of its storied contributors, including the novelist Joan Didion, novelist and literary critic, Darryl Pinckney, political commentator Michael Tomasky, historian Garry Wills, and the director of American Studies at Columbia, Andrew Delbanco. Jeff Madrick, a former policy consultant for Senator Edward Kennedy also contributed. The *Review'*s founding editor Robert Silvers moderated the conversation, titled "What Happens Now."

NYPL President, Paul LeClerc, started the evening by reading an editorial from yesterday's New York Daily News, which detailed how Barack Obama found his first community-organizing job in Chicago by researching at the mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL. The critics then took the stage, seated in alphabetical order, with Silvers at the end of the row.

Each panelist was given five minutes for opening remarks—half to discuss the campaign, and half to discuss what is to come. The general consensus was that Obama will proceed slower than most think and he'll address a stimulus package immediately. The panelists' warning of Obama moving with caution wasn't in doubt, though, as Michael Tomasky said, "He'll have bold and progressive goals and ends. But he'll move a little too slowly for some people."

A few quotable lines and poignant observations from the panel:

Michael Tomasky on Obama's prospective cabinet: "He'll balance his cabinet in a way that will represent every wing of the democratic party."

__Joan Didion__on how Obama—whom she called "a civil man, a politically adroit man"—will handle such fervent praise when in office: "I would think it would be easier in the presidency where you have real things to do instead of campaigning."

Garry Wills on the war: "I believe Afghanistan is a quagmire in waiting."

Michael Tomasky on the future of the Republican party if the Republicans moved away from the religious base toward the center: "Their most plausible candidate in 2012 is a certain former mayor of this city." To which Pinckney responded, "Giuliani is so over."

It's clear the panelists would have been pretty cranky customers had Barack Obama not been elected. But thanks to last week's events, they were downright jovial. The president-elect is still 10 weeks from taking office, but the critics have already spoken.